[gutafoki]

I basically live in the forest and get an unreasonable amount of leaves each autumn. Most of these leaves are also from oak and do not decompose well, leaving the lawn a mess in the spring. Using a rake is unreasonable for me, and a leaf blower saves me many, many hours each year that I can spend better elsewhere.

[ffsm8]

> Using a rake is unreasonable

Why though?

It's generally a lot quicker unless you're a very old person

It's however infinitely more fun with the leave blower, I admit to that!

[delichon]

If you can clear my driveway faster with a rake than I can with a leaf blower, you are a superb athlete. Like John Henry.

[ffsm8]

Did you try rakes like this?

https://www.joom.com/products/681aed59eda2b001310d4e2c

[delichon]

A better rake will help me outcompete a leaf blower as well as better shoes will help me outcompete a car.

[integralid]

I'll tried a leaf blower only once (it was when visiting family) and I raked every other autumn day as a kid. Leaf blower was... extremely painful to use, for me. It felt like it took me 2x more time to achieve what rake would do effortlessly.

But a lot of it was probably familiarity with rake and a lack of skill with leaf blower. I am sorry ready to believe that technology progressed enough that leaf blowers are now usable. I'd like to see how it feels with wet leafs though.

[devilbunny]

Obviously, I'm not you, but at my previous home I had a lot of pine trees (so needles rather than leaves, and lots of cones to remove as well) on a corner lot (so effectively two front yards). I also had a mulching lawn mower.

During the fall and winter, I would mow two or three times. The mulching blade made quick work of the detritus and it was faster and less work than raking the whole thing. I'm far enough south that snow, while possible, was still a novelty not guaranteed to happen every year.